The arrival of the first Christians (the word "Christian"
was at first a term of abuse) made little impact on the
world of Rome. They were looked on as merely another foreign
sect, like the cults and mystery religions from Egypt and
Persia. Slowly, however, their discipline and missionary
zeal brought them to official notice. At last, when they had
become powerful, official attempts were made to suppress
them. Persecution was intermittent, and never widespread.
In Rome itself, Christians were imprisoned and tortured, or thrown into the arena to be devoured by lions. But persecution simply gave the sect even greater cohesion and powers of resistance - a fact not lost on Emperor Constantine. In 313 Constantine granted freedom of worship to all religions, and Christianity later became the state religion.
Constantine made an immense contribution to the spread of Christianity, but he failed in one of his primary aims. He wanted to unite all Christians in one Church, but in fact he succeeded in splitting them.The Christians of the West claimed that the Pope in Rome was the leader of Christendom. Those in the East recognised the Patriarch of Constantinople as their leader. These two forms became the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Ortodox Church. The Byzantine emperors maintanied a large Christian empire covering much of Asia and North Africa until a new dynamic religious force apperaed in the East. This was the religious faith of Islam.